Pro-Haley group preps first TV ads

An outside group tied to South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is poised to go on the air early in the 2014 cycle.

The Movement Fund, a registered 527 organization helmed by Republicans close to Haley, has booked about $130,000 in airtime in three major markets starting next week, according to a source tracking media buys.

It’s not clear precisely what the purpose of the May airtime is and several strategists connected to the Movement Fund did not immediately return requests for comment.

But Haley is expected to face a serious reelection fight: a Winthrop Poll taken earlier this month found her approval rating just under 45 percent among registered South Carolina voters, with 39 percent disapproving of her job performance.

A December survey from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling showed her in a dead heat with Democrat Vincent Sheheen, her 2010 opponent who announced two weeks ago that he will seek the governor’s office again in 2014.

Among the Republicans involved with the Movement Fund are Chad Walldorf, a prominent South Carolina businessman and Haley appointee; Kurt Grindstaff, Haley’s 2010 campaign treasurer; and Paige Hahn, finance director of the Republican Governors Association.

South Carolina’s The State newspaper reported last year that IRS documents showed the group had raised over half a million dollars from donors including Donald Trump, mutual fund mogul and Rick Santorum patron Foster Friess, and the late Texas homebuilder Bob Perry, who at the time of his death last week was one of the most prolific GOP donors in the country.

The Movement Fund’s ad reservations, as they currently stand, overlap with the final days of the closely watched special election in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, where former GOP Gov. Mark Sanford is seeking to make a political comeback and is locked in a close race with Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch.